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Abstract

To the editor: During the recent years several investigators (1-5), using radioimmunoassay, have shown the presence of alphafetoprotein (AFP), not only in the fetal period or in the patients with primary liver cancer, but in the serums of pregnant women or of patients with various nonneoplastic liver diseases.

In acute hepatitis we have observed (Figure 1) that the serum alpha-fetoprotein level rose several days later than the serum transaminase level and that even when the serum transaminase level was back to normal the alpha-fetoprotein level still remained significantly high.

We believe, in agreement with Seppälä and Ruoslahti (4), that alpha-fetoprotein